Re: The Blue Planet Oracle (full BP2/3 spoilers within!)

Isn't revealing the existence of interdimensional travel to the GTVA itself an unacceptable risk to the quarantine?

Battuta stated earlier that the Multiverse is running out of "the right type" of life to achieve the objectives of the terminal protocol. In addition, Shivans do exist in all universes, so no matter what, there is, literally, nowhere to run.

<MageKing17> "There's probably a reason the code is the way it is" is a very dangerous line of thought. <MageKing17> Because the "reason" often turns out to be "nobody noticed it was wrong".(the very next day)<MageKing17> this ****ing code did it to me again<MageKing17> "That doesn't really make sense to me, but I'll assume it was being done for a reason."<MageKing17> **** ME<MageKing17> THE REASON IS PEOPLE ARE STUPID<MageKing17> ESPECIALLY ME

<MageKing17> God damn, I do not understand how this is breaking.<MageKing17> Everything points to "this should work fine", and yet it's clearly not working.<MjnMixael> 2 hours later... "God damn, how did this ever work at all?!"(...)<MageKing17> so<MageKing17> more than two hours<MageKing17> but once again we have reached the inevitable conclusion<MageKing17> How did this code ever work in the first place!?

<@The_E> Welcome to OpenGL, where standards compliance is optional, and error reporting inconsistent

<MageKing17> It was all working perfectly until I actually tried it on an actual mission.

<IronWorks> I am useful for FSO stuff again. This is a red-letter day!* z64555 erases "Thursday" and rewrites it in red ink

<MageKing17> TIL the entire homing code is held up by shoestrings and duct tape, basically.

Re: The Blue Planet Oracle (full BP2/3 spoilers within!)

Only universes containing Shivans or something equivalent to prevent intelligent life from developing into metastatic think-about-me’s haven’t been amputated. But the remaining universes are running out of viable candidates for... and this is where I run into a wall. Candidates for what?

It has been said that the universe is a divirsity engine. But how does that tie into Shivan imperatives? They are hostile to high level cognition. Easiest way to eliminate that is to eliminate life entirely.

The Vishnans want us to become “enlightened” so we can be uploaded to the Great Psyche. What do the Shivans want that is within our power to give them?

Re: The Blue Planet Oracle (full BP2/3 spoilers within!)

Perhaps BP's multiverse is infinite, but there's a certain number of universes "closest" to our one that Vishnans can realistically interact with, and beyond that they just don't have the abilities to? If that would be true, perhaps Vishnan Summed Psyche thingy is actually anchored to one of universes near our one, and they just can't extend themselves away from it further than that certain amount of universes?

Re: The Blue Planet Oracle (full BP2/3 spoilers within!)

I don’t think that’s it. We’ve been told that the Vishnans can pass between universes. May have even been told that they exist in subspace in the walls between universes, but I can’t be sure I’m remembering that correctly.

The Shivans don’t. They are ubiquitous in all universes that are still of concern. Impression I have isn’t that they exist across universes so much as they are a prerequisite of all universes that are capable of supporting intelligence of the kind the Vishnans are interested in.

What I don’t get is what stays the Shivans’ hands from just wiping out all life everywhere and be done with it. Advanced cognition, if left untamed, accelerates towards becoming pathologically self-referential. So why hold back? What do they want? What do THEY get out of this relationship with the Vishnans?

Re: The Blue Planet Oracle (full BP2/3 spoilers within!)

They get nothing. The Shivans were forced into the position they exist on by the precursor to the Great Darkness (Brahmans). An ego, forced the egoless to submit. There is no answer to the problem.

BP has a dualistic system: Thoughtless or Thoughtful.

If you are thoughtless, you have no ego.

If you have thoughts, you do, and inevitably drift towards it. Your Ego has an event horizon to which you grow closer and closer by living. Once you cross it, you are in an inescapable great darkness.

Here come the Shivans. By removing things that become the darkness, you allow other life, Non-Shivan life, to have a chance. But, inevitably, they will become a great darkness too, and so they must be removed, so that life other than them can live.

The Vishnans are an attempt at circumventing the system. And that is why they will never win. They are aiming for a 2 when the only possibilities are 0 and 1. Or if I had to put it another way, Trying to be Shivan while they are the anti-thesis of them. The only middle "solution" is apathy, which we have already seen, they are incapable of fulfilling.

Life in BP's universe is damned, it can only inevitably become its own end.

Sorry if come of as rambling, I really should be sleeping at this hour.

Re: The Blue Planet Oracle (full BP2/3 spoilers within!)

They're quarantined from the infected ruin of the Brahman noosphere and they aren't trying to attempt it themselves (nor do they have NEARLY the scale and unity of thought the Brahman did). From the beginning the Vishnans have been trying to find an inheritor for the Brahmans of old.

Re: The Blue Planet Oracle (full BP2/3 spoilers within!)

I disagree with claims that its pointless if we will eventually die. If you delay the destruction of the species for say 200 years, thats still totally worth it and is valuable. Existing on into infinity is certainly desirable, but just because it has infinite value doesn't mean that anything else must have 0 value.

Re: The Blue Planet Oracle (full BP2/3 spoilers within!)

Existing for existence's sake is pointless. The longer we remain, the likelihood of becoming a great darkness approaches one. What should matter is not having more time, but how we spend the time we do have.

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Spoiler:

Everything dies. Even humanity, Laporte supposes. Maybe how you live should count for more than how long you last.